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Okay, I’ll admit it.  Despite my "optimistic–don’t take things personally–it was a learning experience–this is not a confirmation that you have no talent" attitude at the disappointment of Saturday’s event, I’m feeling a little beat up.  Just a little, but that’s just enough to un-motivate me.  So I am forcing myself to get back into the blog of things.

Back Story:
Saturday, June 2, I participated in an event called PAWSAPALOOZA, which was a doggie film festival organized to benefit PAWS/LA.  As part of the festivities, there was going to be what they called a "canine midway" of dog related products and services.  It occurred to me that while this might not be the perfect venue to sell my jewelry, it could be a good opportunity to at least get my feet wet.  I have sold a lot of jewelry since I started my business in 2001, but almost all of it has been through my website.  I’ve never done any type of artist fair or even gone to any stores to try to sell my work, but lately I’ve been thinking it might be time to do that.  I decided I’d go ahead and get a booth.

Since I had almost no inventory when I decided to get the booth, I invited my sister-in-law and a friend to join me.  Both of them gave me a nice selection of jewelry to display with my own and I felt like we had a good mix of pieces.

Prior to the day of the event, I’d spent some time trying to plan how I was going to display all the jewelry.  This turned out to be a lot harder than I’d expected!  My original display was very elaborate, and included my wooden buddha to hang necklaces and bracelets on, as well as some vases and a glass shadow box.  It all looked great, but upon trying to find places to put the actual jewelry, I knew some things would have to go.  I ended up buying about 8 yards (way too much) of a black velvet type material and some styrofoam shapes to use as levels under the cloth.  That, along with some displays that Susan and Antoinette had contributed, was all I decided to use.

Upon arriving at the venue, I had about two hours to set up.  It seemed like more than enough time, but I was stressed out all the same.  Mick brought his lap top and planned to use his cell phone as a modem so we could authorize credit card purchases online.  This didn’t work out as well as we thought it would as we kept getting error messages.  Scott from PAWS/LA told us he planned to just gather all the credit card info and then authorize it off site.  While it’s riskier to do it this way, it was really the only practical thing to do.

Even after doing a couple of display run-throughs at home, it was still difficult to display the jewelry to its greatest effect.  I did the best I could and frankly, thought the display looked pretty good.

Above:  Mick West, my trusty assistant

This was more or less the final set up.  I put Antoinette and Susan’s jewelry on either side of mine, which was in the center, then merged some of their pieces with mine where there were similarities.  For example, Susan has some peace-themed jewelry which I placed with my peace-themed jewelry.

 
Above:  Antoinette’s display.

Above:  Holly’s display.

Above:  Susan’s display.

This is me, feigning enthusiasm as it became painfully clear that no one who came to this event was there to buy jewelry.

Above: the event is almost over and look at all the jewelry still on the table.  Can we go home yet?

Tommorow:  Lessons Learned

On June 2, I will be exhibiting my jewelry at an event called Pawsapalooza, sponsored by PAWS/LA.  I have been involved with PAWS/LA (stands for Pets are Wonderful Support) in one way or another since 2001.  Their mission is to help clients (which include people with life-threatening illnesses and the elderly) keep their pets when it may no longer be feasible for health or financial reasons.

Though my jewelry isn’t generally dog related, I have created some pieces for this event which celebrate “Dog Love.”  The necklace pictured below is an example–it features a sterling plate at the clasp that reads “Dog is Good.” 

This necklace features peach rutilated quartz, peridot, and appatite stones and sterling silver components.

The back: 

I am suddenly very excited about this part of my line as I have long wanted to create jewelry that was not overtly dog related but gave a subtle nod to the dog lover in all of us.  I think this does it beautifully.

One of the phrases I’m stamping on my jewelry is “She walks in beauty,” which is the title and first line of a poem by Lord Byron.

The necklace below incorporates this stamping (though I know it’s difficult to read):

Here is a close up of the pendant used in this piece.  It is a slightly larger version of the technique I used in this necklace, and I added a peridot briolette to the center, which rests nicely inside the domed portion of the pendant.

The entire text of the poem is below:

She walks in beauty, like the night
Of cloudless climes and starry skies;
And all that ‘s best of dark and bright
Meet in her aspect and her eyes:
Thus mellow’d to that tender light
Which heaven to gaudy day denies.
One shade the more, one ray the less,
Had half impair’d the nameless grace
Which waves in every raven tress,
Or softly lightens o’er her face;
Where thoughts serenely sweet express
How pure, how dear their dwelling-place.
And on that cheek, and o’er that brow,
So soft, so calm, yet eloquent,
The smiles that win, the tints that glow,
But tell of days in goodness spent,
A mind at peace with all below,
A heart whose love is innocent!

The peace theme I like to use in my jewelry has been hard to incorporate into earrings.  The other day I made a pair that does it nicely, however:

I started with fine silver disks and stamped the word "Peace" in each, then domed them.  I then added a briolette of aquamarine in the center of the disk and wirewrapped natural citrine to finish the earrings.

A couple of days ago I had an idea for making some “pendants” so I spent most of my time in the studio on Tuesday actually making them.  They turned out exactly as I’d expected and I am very pleased with the outcome.   

Here is the necklace in it’s entirety:

The technique is molton silver flattened with hammer, then domed and polished.  The beauty of it is that if you don’t like the shape you get you can always melt it and try again.

In this necklace, I used rhodolite garnet and natural citrine beads.

Some more fruits of my weekeend labor:

These earrings are of extremely similar styles but differ in a few ways.  The top pair is made of 26g sterling silver wire with very small sterling silver beads surrounding a single ruby bead.

The second pair is made with 22g sterling silver wire, much larger sterling beads, and natural carnelian rondelles.  They are much heavier than the ruby version, but still comfortable to wear.  I call them Gypsy earrings.

Remember that old song by Loverboy called "Working for the Weekend?"  That’s pretty much what I did, only my song was called "Working on the Weekend."

<tangent>  I am now indulging in a major blast from the past–went to iTunes and downloaded some songs from Loverboy’s Get Lucky album (on which resides Working for the Weekend).  That was one of my favorite albums when I was a kid.  </tangent>

Now, on to the jewelry, which is the real reason we’re here.

Citrine Pillow Earrings

Very similar in design to these earrings.  The only difference are the natural citrine stones.

Still Rockin’ the Pink

This necklace is a companion piece to this bracelet.  In this version I included some green garnet and greenish-pink tourmaline.

Ruby Necklace

I love this necklace, and I promise it looks a lot better in person.  It’s sterling silver with five ruby beads in the center.

A Different Kind of Peace

Remember when I said I was getting away from the peace signs?
   I never said I wasn’t gonna promote peace in my jewelry wherever I could and in this case it’s rather more obvious than the "Free Your Mind" message (although I guess it’s hard to read–the plate at the top says "Peace.")

<tangent>  Oh no, now I’m on to Survivor’s greatest hits… boy I’m a sucker for a power ballad. </tangent>

This necklace, of course, is the same basic design as this one.

It is sterling silver, peridot, rhodolite garnet, and whiskey quartz, another one of my favorite color combos.

For a long time, I didn’t like regular old red garnet and always preferred rhodolite garnet because it’s pinker.  I’ve changed my mind though–I have some beautiful red garnets that I will be using a lot in the coming weeks.

And right about now I could use some whiskey because I got a jury summons today.  I thought it was bad enough last time when I had to go to the downtown court house.  This time I have to go all the way to Torrance.  Grrrrrrr.

Mick’s been saying he wants to become a citizen so we can apply to be on the Amazing Race (I think he’s serious, too), but when the summons came in the mail he changed his mind.

Once upon a time, there was a necklace…

In addition to some of the other elements I’ve mentioned with regard to my current line of jewelry, a very important aspect of it will be color stories.  There will be at least 5 different styles in the line, and probably as many color combinations:  blues, reds, greens, etc.

The pieces below represent one style in the collection as well as the blue color story.  I have always planned to incorporate strung beads on colored cord into at least part of the collection, as shown here:

 
The gemstones used are red aventurine (represents peace), Swiss blue topaz, turquoise, capped off with a facetted smokey topaz pendant as the focal point.
 
I am generally not a matchy-matchy person when I wear jewelry, but it can be a useful way to create it.  Though all of these pieces can be worn as a set, it is not my intent. 

By the way, I’m totally loving these earrings.

Today I straightened up my jewelry studio/spare bedroom and pulled out all of my goldsmithing tools, which I haven’t done in such a long time.  I make jewelry all the time, of course, but really the only time I use my metalsmithing skills is once a week in my teacher’s studio.

Like I’ve posted before, I’m going in a slightly different direction with my jewelry.  For the first time, I’ve got a clear vision of where I want to go with it, and one of the main elements will be handmade findings such as clasps, earwires, etc.   I’ve done that before, but not to this extent because my previous attitude has always been "why re-invent the wheel?"  I realize now that was a bit of a mistake because it’s such an obvious place to set my work apart.

Garnet and Pearl Necklace

I’ve long been a fan of garnets and pearls mixed together in jewelry, so it’s no surprise that my prototype necklace incorporates this combination:

Unlike this necklace, I don’t want the "message" in the jewelry to get in the way of its main purpose, which is decoration.  Some of my pieces will continue to incorporate it front and center, but for this part of the line I want it to be delicate and pretty. 

Additional pieces will incorporate much more color and will be more "multi-media."